Unusually for me and for this blog, I've got a lot to write about today, and some of it is political. I think I'll do seperate posts for the different items. First up, some news about Plymouth City Council, where I worked for around 12 years. The Council, like most of local government is highly unionised, part of the reason why local government workers generally enjoy such good terms and conditions. Anyway, when I worked there, I was an active shop steward, and for a while was on the Branch Executive. It was interesting work, but as any union rep will tell you, it's pretty thankless. Most union members are completely apathetic until they need a steward, then suddenly you're expected to drop everything for them. Anyway, partly as a legacy from my father, and partly because I cannot stand bullying in any shape or form, I'm very glad I did act as a steward - this is very much the sort of glue that holds together our society, along with all sorts of voluntary work and mutual aid. It was also (surprisingly) an excellent primer for becoming a manager, in that in so many ways it provided lessons in what NOT to do, as much as what works. Like all Councils, Plymouth recognised not just Unison, but the GMB and Unite (in its previous forms), and practiced a form of collective bargaining. Unions were given accommodation, recognised time off for union work and the usual facilities. This generally worked well, and by and large I'd say industrial relations in Plymouth were pretty good.

Fast forward a few years, and like all Councils Plymouth is grappling with the implementation of Single Status. This is attempting to eliminate the old professional and clerical/manual divide with big differences in terms and conditions, including working hours, overtime arrangements and so on. One of the drivers for this is the inherent sex bias in much of the old arrangements, (in which unions were highly complicit, it has to be said) which led to institutionalised pay gaps between jobs that had overwhelmingly male or female staff. Plymouth has been steadily inching towards a revised package of terms and conditions but recently negotiations have stalled. Now here's the thing that has really rendered me hopping mad - Plymouth Council have thrown out Unison from the negotiations and closed their offices, rendering them homeless. Rightly, Unite and GMB have now withdrawn their agreement from what was an almost completed package. This has left the negotiations in complete chaos.

Eventually, I have no doubt that the Council can and will drive through a package of measures, and yes, I understand completely the really tight situation facing local government finance. And yes, there are plenty of arcane and bonkers practices that need to be driven out - in Cardiff, I sometimes felt I'd been teleported back to the 1970s with some of the bizarre things unions fought to defend. But none of this takes away from the basic point about the employer shredding the goodwill and trust of its employees, and its union reps, many of whom are highly effective, hardworking and do a thankless job with many hours of voluntary commitment. Equally, employees of the Council (and particularly female and low paid ones) are now further away than ever from having fairness and parity at work. I'm sure that many trade unionists will be taking action to support Plymouth's unions, and I hope that if any of my readers are trade unionists they will immediately press their branches and national bodies to put pressure on both sides to resume negotiations. See here for the BBC report and links to relevant websites.